Read With Us - Book Two

Have you been curious about the next Read With Us Book? After careful consideration, Kym, Carole, and I have finally chosen one. And we really did consider carefully. We thought fiction might be a good choice after Just Mercy, and Kym's goals were to find a high-quality book that was a little more obscure — but not TOO obscure, under 350 pages, not newly published and that might appeal to a broad range of readers. We hope this one will be readily available from libraries and be very discussable.

So what is the book? (Insert drum roll here) Fever by Mary Beth Keane. It's a historical fiction novel about the real-life woman known as “Typhoid Mary,” the first person in America identified as a healthy carrier of typhoid fever. 

From Mary Beth Keane's website: On the eve of the twentieth century, Mary Mallon emigrated from Ireland at age fifteen to make her way in New York City. Brave, headstrong, and dreaming of being a cook, she fought to climb up from the lowest rung of the domestic-service ladder. Canny and enterprising, she worked her way to the kitchen and discovered in herself the true talent of a chef. Sought after by New York aristocracy, and with an independence rare for a woman of the time, she seemed to have achieved the life she’d aimed for when she arrived in Castle Garden. Then one determined “medical engineer,” noticed that she left a trail of disease wherever she cooked and identified her as an “asymptomatic carrier” of Typhoid Fever. With this seemingly preposterous theory, he made Mallon a hunted woman.

Our timeline is just a little bit different because of the holidays. We wanted to announce the book now to allow you (hopefully) to get it from your local library if that's your choice. We'll be waiting to do our promotional posts until after the holidays in January, and then discussing the book in February. 

I hope this book sounds as intriguing to you as it does to us, and you'll Read With Us once again!